Sunday, May 3, 2009

"In the spring of 2003, three young filmmakers traveled to Africa in search of a story. What started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims.

After returning to the States, they created the documentary "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a film that exposes the tragic realities of northern Uganda.s night commuters and child soldiers.

The film was originally shown to friends and family, but has now been seen by millions of people. The overwhelming response has been, "How can I help?" To answer this question, the non-profit Invisible Children, Inc. was created, giving compassionate individuals an effective way to respond to the situation."

I encourage all of you to watch this documentary. After seeing it, I have become quite involved with the cause...helping to organize a campus-wide event that took place in March, which won a national award. Last weekend, I abducted myself...and so did thousands of others...we were in 100 cities all over the world...and we waited. We waited to be rescued. There is an update to the documentary that just came out within the last month...it's called the rescue, so you should watch that too. Above you will find the trailer to the first documentary. After you watch it, I'm sure you'll want to see the rest...We all have to work together if we ever want this war to end...and the first thing you can do is educate yourself about this issue...so if you want to know more about Invisible Children, check out their website...

Thursday, April 23, 2009

You know what drives me absolutely insane? People who order to go when they're dining in. The other day I went to Bell Tower (one of the dining halls on campus for those of you who are non-miamians) to grab some lunch. They always ask if you would like your order to go or if you're eating in. I hardly ever get food to go, just because I'm all about going green these days and in the dining hall the difference between dining in and getting to go means saving a little piece of our planet. If you get to go, all of your food goes in a paper or plastic container, but if you eat in, you get the real deal...china and a metal fork. First of all, I don't know why someone wouldn't want to eat with a metal fork? It makes me feel like I'm more at home...a fancier encounter...which is not a common on-campus experience. My point is, is that I see over half the people dining in who have ordered their food to go. I don't understand the reasoning behind it...it just doesn't make sense. So for those of you who are ordering to go and eating in...well...just don't. It makes me sad. Enough said.

One of my bestest friends in the whole entire world sent me a link to this site today because she knows how much I love to help the environment...this is one of the coolest things I've ever seen...This company is taking old pop bottles and using them to repackage household items like soap and other cleaners...how cool is that??? Their products are very affordable too! You should definitely check it out! Here's the link:

Oh elevators...I never realized how awkward they are until yesterday. So there I was...riding in the elevator (I normally take the stairs, but I refuse to walk up four flights of stairs in Upham Hall)...and that's when I realized how much of an awkward turtle moment riding in an elevator actually is. If you think about it...the awkwardness begins before you even enter the elevator...sometimes it can takes as long as five minutes for the elevator to reach the ground floor...and the entire time you're waiting, more people join you...and then you're standing there thinking...wow...I'm going to have to ride in an elevator with these people. You spend the rest of your wait analyzing everyone standing there...and if your mind could talk these are just a few things it might say...

"Hmm...that lady has lunch with her...I wonder where she got it from...speaking of food...I'm kinda hungry...well...am I really hungry? or am I just hungry because that lady's food looks delicious."

"That girl has pink toenails...I would never paint my toenails that color...green should've been the obvious choice." (okay so maybe your mind wouldn't say this, but I refuse to put anything pink on my body...just another way to conform if I did...but that's a topic for another day).

"Now this is an interesting guy...I wonder if he showered today...or this week even...it doesn't look like it. I wish I could find a nice way to tell him he doesn't smell all that great...then again...I wish I could find a way to tell my grandpa the same...maybe it would be easier if I used this guy for a practice run...nope...that would just be way to creepy..."

Okay...so you haven't even entered the elevator yet...you're still standing there and now you hear the ding and the doors open. You walk in...and press the button for your floor...but where do you stand? Do you stand in the back so no one will look at you? Do you stand by the buttons? Maybe you stand by the buttons, but if you do then you actually have to converse with the others getting in who say " three please, two please, etc, etc." If you don't stand in the back or by the buttons maybe you choose the side...usually a safe decision. Most of the time everyone gets in and stands facing the middle...why can't people just face the front? It would make things much less awkward if people would press their own button and face the front...but no...someone always has to stand next to the buttons...you don't want to reach in front of them so you are forced to start a conversation. And then there's always the person that gets in last...and in the event that everyone is facing forward, this final person decides to face the back of the elevator...staring at everyone...is this really necessary? I don't think so. As if all this isn't enough...for some reason, half the elevators in this world never work properly...so everyone gets in and presses all their buttons and then the door doesn't close and you're waiting...you wait some more hoping the doors will close and then you start thinking..."okay...who's going to press the close door button? I'm not really closest, but what if no one else plans to push the button? We'll be standing here for days...but what if i decide to close it and the girl next to me decides to close it at the exact same time? There's a chance of that happening also which would make it even more awkward." Needlessly to say... I was the one to press the button yesterday saving us all from even more misery. Okay...so now we're finally in transit...and of course we have to stop at every floor, which makes us experience the "close door button" moment several more times...not to mention all the awkwardness of trying not to make eye contact with anyone. Finally, we reached the top, and it was all over...but wow...I had never analyzed the elevator experience until yesterday...it's quite complex. I hope I haven't freaked anyone out to the point where they will never ride an elevator again...but hey, just something to think about.